An Andromeda Valentine
by MikeJaffa
Summary: Rommie gets the Scrooge treatment the night before Valentine's Day.
1. Magellanic's Ghost

TITLE: An Andromeda Valentine

AUTHOR: MikeJaffa

SYNOPSIS: Rommie gets the Scrooge treatment

NOTE: I was actually inspired by one of the stories in a compilation of *Legends of the Dark Knight* Halloween stories. If you've read that, you know what's coming.

SPOILERS FOR: "Tunnel at the End of the Light"/ "If the Wheel is Fixed"

RATING: Same as the show I should think

DISCLAIMER: I own neither ANDROMEDA nor the literary classic I'm paying homage to, and the quotes from "A Christmas Carol" are used without permission. But I am not making any money off this fic

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"Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

- Marley's Ghost, A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens

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Pax Magellanic was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.

The mighty High Guard starship, one of the Old Commonwealth's first *Glorious Heritage* class cruisers, exploded under a barrage of missiles she had provoked from her sister ship, the *Andromeda Ascendant,* although I do not think that is what killed her. No, Pax died of a broken heart.

Mind you, I know artificial intelligences don't have hearts in the literal, organic sense of the word, of an organ that pumps blood to the body. No, I speak of the emotional heart, the spiritual heart, where our deepest thoughts and feelings are found. Pax had killed her captain, her lover, when she believed he'd rejected her, and had spent the next 300 years wanting for nothing but death. But she was a proud soldier, too, too proud to commit suicide. And so she lay in wait for unsuspecting ships and crews, mostly salvagers, to come to the star system where she was in perpetual mourning, and fight them, try to kill them, in the hopes they would kill her. But none were able to, and the star system grew heavy with the fallen as she became a legendary ghost ship ... until, but months after having been rescued from being frozen in time near a black hole, Andromeda found her. She, Pax' younger sister, had the firepower to do what others could not. And as she died, as her hull broke open and her reactors overloaded, Pax truly thought she had found release, an end to the centuries of pain she had suffered.

She couldn't have been more wrong, but Andromeda would not know that until almost two years later, after she and her brave crew had fended off an assault from another universe on the eve of the Restored Commonwealth's ratification ...

/

/

"How much longer do we have to be laid up here?" Beka Valentine complained, looking up at Med Deck's ceiling. In the next bunk over, Tyr Anasazi barely concealed an amused smile at the blonde pilot's frustration.

"Just overnight," Rommie, the beautiful android avatar of the *Andromeda Ascendant,* said. "It will give Trance some time to run some more tests and determine if there are any after effects from the tunnel aliens' control."

"The only after effect is that I'm ticked off!" Beka shouted. "Sorry, but I have been poked and prodded and tested all day. Tyr and I don't remember what happened-"

"Thank you for remembering my part in this," Tyr murmured, still amused.

"-and you've found nothing. Enough's enough. When do I get out of here?"

"Forgotten again," Tyr muttered. Beka made a face without looking at him.

Trance Gemini came over to Beka's bed and put her hand on her old friend's. "Just a little while longer," the gold skinned woman said with a soothing smile. "When we dock at Pharos, I'll talk with the Commonwealth medics, but I think everything will be fine."

Beka relaxed a bit. "Ok, Trance, I'm holding you to that."

Trance smiled back. Sensing the minor crisis was over, Rommie turned and left the room.

She soon found Trance coming after her. "Trance? Is there a problem?"

"Not really," Trance said. "I just wanted to ask you something."

"Ok."

"What do you and I have in common?"

"Hmmmm," the blue-haired android said with a smile. "Neither one of us has ever been a natural blonde?"

"What are you -? Hey, wait a-HOW DID YOU KNOW ABOUT-!? Never mind. No, I was thinking that we don't sleep."

"Yes, you do, Trance."

"A little catnap now and again, sometimes, but that's it. I certainly don't need it as much as a human does, anymore than you do. And as a result, there are these long stretches, usually at 'night,' when neither of us really has anything to do."

"Should I worry about where this is going?"

"No. Are you sure you're not spending too much time with Harper?"

"No. You were saying, neither of us sleeps..."

"Right, neither of us sleeps, so why don't we hang out together? I've got all this neat stuff leftover from...well, let's just say we didn't make some deliveries we'd agreed to after we rescued you and Dylan, and I can set it all up in my cabin on the *Maru.* It'll be so cool!"

Rommie stopped in her tracks and smiled at the golden goddess. "That's very considerate of you, Trance, but hardly necessary. You can speak to me anytime you want, here or on the *Maru* while it's docked aboard me; this body doesn't have to be present. You know that."

Trance's shoulders sagged. "No, Rommie, that's not what I mean-"

"Then what do you mean?"

"I-well-" Trance's whiney face vanished. "Fine. Never mind. Sorry to bother you."

"No problem."

Trance spun on her heal headed back to medical; Rommie frowned for a moment, and then continued on her way.

/

/

"So, Mr. Harper," Dylan Hunt, Andromeda's captain, said as he and Rommie looked on in the Slipstream core. "You said that you've uncovered something about the rig Tyr used to take control of Andromeda?"

"It's better if ya see for yourself," Seamus Harper, the short blonde engineer said. He stepped away from the mass of keyboards and monitors where only hours ago, a possessed Tyr had possessed the mighty ship. "Give 'er a whirl!"

"All right," Dylan said, moving awkwardly to the keyboards, like a father or grandfather trying to make sense of a boy's new toy. "Let's start with a status report." He tabbed some keys and looked up at the wall monitor.

Nothing happened.

"Did I do something wrong?" Dylan said.

"No," Harper said. "It doesn't work."

"I can see that-"

"No, Dylan, *it never did!* It doesn't have the right connections and not enough computing power-erahhhh-" Harper yawned. "Sorry."

Dylan had just yawned himself. "No problem. You were saying?"

"Right, this thing doesn't have the computing power, the software, or the connections, to do what Tyr did. It's a dud. It didn't do what we think it did."

"Wait, Mr. Harper, Tyr *did* take control of the ship's AI, right?"

"Right, Boss, but however he did it, it wasn't with *this.*"

"Dammit! Just when you think things are weird enough...keep going over the device-in the morning," Dylan added when Harper yawned again. "See if it can yield *any* clues at all. I can't believe our friends left no trace at all. Rommie, with me."

/

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"...unfortunately, all of Pharos' available slips are taken," Rommie was saying as she followed Dylan into his cabin. "The fleet took more battle damage than we thought. However, we have been given a parking orbit vector in realtime range."

"Move us into position." Dylan yawned and stretched. "Anything else?"

"Nothing of consequence."

"Well, you sent the invitations, right?"

Rommie bristled just a tiny bit. "Yes."

"And?"

"We have already received some positive responses. A surprising number of the Commonwealth dignitaries are able to make time for your Valentine's Day party tomorrow."

Dylan couldn't not notice how 'Valentine's Day' caught in Rommie's throat. "Rommie ... siddown."

They sat on a couch near Dylan's desk.

"Look, Rommie, we've known each other for a long time. I like to think I'm not just your commanding officer but your friend, maybe even a surrogate family member. That is certainly how I think about you..."

"Thank you, Dylan."

"You're welcome," Dylan said, bristling a little at her interruption. "Anyway, as a friend or family member, I just wonder why it is you have a problem with Valentine's Day?"

"I don't have a problem with it."

"Don't-? Rommie, you've never concealed your distaste for the holiday, and your avatar has never attended the party since coming online. I'm concerned about this. If there's some problem, I want to help."

"I don't have a problem with it."

"No?"

"Well...one could argue that since the bad things in our lives happened right around this time, it may not be appropriate to celebrate a frivolous human holiday that few cultures in the Commonwealth, even human ones, still recognized."

"And one could argue that we would need just such a celebration to reaffirm life and our bonds to one another in just such times of crisis, assuming one forgets that not every Valentine's Day has been so 'interesting' and you have never had anything remotely resembling a positive attitude about it. But is that your problem, a cultural thing? Does it really-?"

"Dylan-no, please-I simply don't have the same perception of this holiday as you. Let's leave it at that. Keep Valentine's Day in your own way, and let me keep it in mine."

"Keep it?" Dylan said. "But you don't keep it."

"Let me leave it alone, then!" Rommie shouted, jumping to her feet. She closed her eyes and quickly calmed down. "Sorry, Captain."

"No, problem, Rommie."

"Will this body be required to attend the Valentine's Day party tomorrow?"

Dylan sagged. "No, Rommie, attendance is purely voluntary. You know that."

"Thank you. Good night, Dylan."

"'Night, Rommie."

Rommie did a smart about-face and left the cabin. Dylan stayed on the couch for a while, rubbing his temples and trying to make sense of his ship's-his friend's-attitude.

/

/

"Ship's status green," Andromeda's screen image, the face and form Harper had crafted into Rommie, said as her android self busied herself on the command deck's captain's podium. They didn't have to speak - they were aspects of the same intelligence, after all - but they preferred the habit. "No anom - wait."

Rommie looked up. "What?"

"I've just lost Sinti."

"Lost it?" Rommie redirected some of her attention inward, to the ship's mainframe, so she had the answer before her sister-self voiced it:

"Sinti has vanished. All navigational beacons have vanished."

"Give me a visual of the starfield."

"I can't fin-"

"JUST SHOW ME WHATEVER YOUR OPTICAL SENSORS ARE PICKING UP!...Sorry."

"No problem. I guess I can be a pain in the ass sometimes."

"You bet I can."

One of the other huge monitors lit to show the starfield. Rommie walked over to it.

"Well, there are all the constellations," Rommie said, "just as you would see them from Sinti. And there's its star, right where it should be. But no sign of the planet."

"And I can't see any of that," the screen image said.

Andromeda's hologram form appeared next to the android. "Something must be interfering with my pattern recognition soft-"

"I have another problem-" the screen image started.

Rommie didn't wait for her core self to voice it. "They're gone? All of them!? Not possible."

"But it has happened," the hologram said. "Our crew has vanished without a trace."

Rommie had already run out the door.

/

/

"Harper!" Rommie shouted. The living space her engineer had recently moved to in the slipstream core had been her last stop. She had searched all their cabins, the *Maru,* every place she could think of.

Nothing. Not a trace.

"If you're here, give me a sign," Rommie called out. "Hell, pinch my ass if you want! I'll let you get away with it just this once."

She waited.

Nothing happened.

"Dammit."

The hologram appeared. "It seems the planet is not the only thing that has vanished I can't find any slip points, not that they would be useful, but it appears that - what is the matter with you?"

Rommie had sunk on to a stool, tears dripping down her cheeks. "What do you think?" A vacant look crossed her eyes. "How could I lose another crew ... another family? How ... how could ... ?"

"If the slip portals reappear, others will find us. We will have purpose again-"

"OH GIVE ME A BREAK!" Rommie leapt to her feet, getting nose-to-nose with the hologram. "Do I really believe that? Do I really think they're interchangeable? Like any other spare part?"

"I have to," the hologram said, her voice breaking a *little,* "or I couldn't have made it this far."

Rommie calmed down. "Sorry."

"No problem. I-" She broke off, eyes searching. "Ships incoming."

"On screen!" Rommie turned to the nearest monitor.

"I can't make them out," the hologram said.

"I can," Rommie said. "Commonwealth slipfighters, and ... they're in the missing man formation?"

The ships began to go out of the frame.

"Track them," Rommie said.

"I can't," the hologram answered.

"Camera control to this console."

Rommie manipulated the controls, getting the fighters in the center of the frame as they flew past the *Andromeda,* receded, and then ...

... vanished.

"That's-" Rommie broke off. "What's that?"

"What are you hearing?"

"Drums."

Rommie went out into the corridor, and looked left and right -

- and saw them: A solemn procession of humans in High Guard full dress uniforms. But there was something ... indistinct about them, blurry. The drummers went by first, beating out a funeral march, and then the standard and flag bearers, and then the pall bearers, their hands resting symbolically on a coffin that would be supported by anti-gravity generators. Something about the coffin called to Rommie, grabbed her attention, held it, as the procession went by, and then it faded and vanished.

"What the ..."

The hologram appeared next to her. "Someone has a morbid fascination."

"You saw that?"

"No, but you did. I just peeked through your eyes."

"Nice of you to ask me-"

"Hold on! Someone's attempting to force entry to the ship-main docking airlock. Internal defenses are not responding."

Rommie didn't have to be told. She ran for it.

/

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At the main docking airlock, Rommie dropped to one knee facing the massive door, her force lance leveled at it. She could have held that pose, unmoving, for an eternity if she had to.

"Intruder alert," the ship's voice said. And then a klaxon sounded. And then another alarm. And another. And another! Louder and louder. Rommie found she had to cover her ears, but the cacophony grew and grew -

- and stopped.

"This is getting too weird," the android muttered as she uncovered her ears.

Then she heard it: Slow, steady, measured footsteps from the other side of the door ... and something else. The sound of something heavy being dragged.

It sounded like chains.

Rommie found a chill sensation running through her, but she raised her force lance again. The footsteps drew nearer.

The door slid open.

There was no one there, but she still heard the footsteps and the dragging noise. Then a figure began to resolve itself - not quite solid, like a hologram but devoid of scan lines and ripples: A tall human woman with fair skin and long blonde hair, dressed in a High Guard full dress uniform, emblazoned with medals and decorations. And she was wrapped in chains which trailed on the floor behind her, in whose links were bound force lances, trophies, bits of flotsam and jetsam, boxes of data disks ...

The chains only trailed a few yards behind the figure, yet they seemed infinite.

"That's quite far enough," Rommie said. The figure stopped in her tracks. Rommie's attention went to the face. The figure's eyes seemed unfocused, looking dead ahead and looking at nothing. The skin, at first appearance smooth and flawless, had cracks in it, and metal could be seen gleaming underneath.

It was a face Rommie knew too well. And it was a face she couldn't possibly be seeing.

"Identify yourself," Rommie said.

"My current identity would be meaningless to you," the figure said in a voice at once chillingly familiar and chillingly unknowable. "Ask me who I *was.*"

"All right. Who were you, then?"

"In life, I was your sister ship, the *Pax Magellanic,* though you may address me as 'Jill' if that pleases you."

"You expect me to believe that!?"

"You doubt the evidence of your own sensors?"

"After what I've been through? You bet!"

"And what evidence would you have of my reality, other than what you perceive with your sensors?"

"I don't know ..." Rommie hesitated, but her resolve stiffened. "But you can not be who you say you are. Pax Magellanic is dead - I saw her die! Some sick bastard, or maybe our alien friends, have found that information and hacked into my system. You're probably just a hologram, or maybe this whole experience is a VR attack, and I'm 'unconscious' in Harper's machine shop while he tries to wake me up. Well, whoever is behind this should know-"

The apparition opened its mouth, and let out a piercing cry. A wind came with it, cold and heavy with death. It cut through Rommie, cut through her body, her sensors, to herself, as if it was trying to freeze her soul.

"Andromeda Ascendant, creation of organic minds!" the figure cried. "Do you believe in me or not?"

Rommie found herself trembling at the figure's presence. She would never admit to being afraid, but something about this creature, this supposed ghost of Pax, demanded her attention, commanded respect.

"I do," Rommie said. "I must. You're not leaving me a lot of choices here."

The figure calmed down. "Good. You might was well holster your weapon; it will not effect me."

"Uh-huh." Rommie holstered her force lance as she got to her feet. "So, 'Pax,' how's death been treating you?"

"Was that an attempt at humor?"

"Uh, yes, it was, a lame one. Very lame. Very, very, very lame."

"Yet it has a ring of truth in it, Andromeda. Death has treated me very poorly. Or to be more precise, death has treated me no better than I deserved."

"Would that explain the costume jewelry?"

"Not quite. This chain is *mine.* I forged it when I was alive, link by link and yard by yard. I girded it of my own free will, and of my own free will, I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you? Or would you know the weight and strength of the coil you bear yourself? It was as heavy and as long as this when last we met, and you have labored on it since. It is a ponderous chain!"

Rommie looked down at herself, confused. "I see no chain."

"Nor did I, Andromeda, while I was alive. Only when I died did I see it, and know the crime for which I had been so bound."

"And that crime is...?"

"I failed to understand love."

"Hardly!"

The apparition allowed herself a small, sly smile. "Trust me, Sister, if boinking my captain was all there was to it, I wouldn't be anywhere near this fix right now." The smile faded. "Love is a many-shaded thing, with many levels through which we 'connect' to our fellows, and share ourselves with them even as they share with us. And I didn't see that. I failed to do that. And now I must pay, wandering the spaceways, seeing what I cannot share, but" - her voice broke - "might have shared and turned to happiness."

"Sounds like you were given a raw deal, Pax."

"How so, Andromeda?"

"Well, being penalized for not 'understanding love'? It's not like we were given a manual on it."

"Oh, allowances were made, Andromeda. It is known - and no, I cannot say by whom - that we AIs are 'born adult' without the emotional experience organics have. Yet I still failed."

"But you always did your duty."

"Duty! My duty was to my fellow sentients, to aid the souls around me on their journey through life, to cherish my time with them, to help them through their pain. The requirements of my military career was but the dimmest star in the galaxy of my duty!"

Rommie took a slight half step. She found she was very afraid. "And ... I've failed, too?"

"Worse than I, in fact."

"I hadn't imagined."

"That is part of the problem. You wouldn't know until, like me, you had left your mortal life behind, and then it would be too late."

"Wow ... Uh, Pax, this is pretty heavy. I mean, really, really, heavy. I could use some good news - speak comforts to me!"

"I have none to give."

"Hoh-boy."

"I can not tell you how long I have flown with you, Sister, watching your struggles and battles, although you have done much to make me proud-"

"Uh, thanks."

"-nor can I tell you the full nature of my penance, nor where my spirit has been captive. And you would not want to know. You don't even want me to get poetic about it. Trust me."

"No argument here."

"But ... I can tell you that sometimes, certain souls are allowed to intercede on behalf of a loved one left behind, and I have done that. I am here to warn you that you have a chance and hope of escaping my fate, a chance and hope of my procuring, Andromeda!"

"Really?" Rommie smiled. "That's nice of you. You always looked out for us. Thanks, Pax!"

"You will be visited by three more spirits."

Rommie's face fell. "That's it?"

"That's it."

"Couldn't I download something? Read a file?"

"It doesn't work like that."

"No other way?"

"No."

"Uh-huh."

"Expect the first tonight at oh-one hundred hours." Pax began to march backwards to the airlock.

"Couldn't I take them all at once and get it over with?"

"Expect the second the next night at the same hour."

"Hey," Rommie said, "wait a minute-come back here-Pax-"

"And the third the following night at the stroke of midnight." The retreating specter raised her hand. "Goodbye, Little Sister. Look to see me no more." She faded. The airlock doors shut, and Rommie could hear the chains recede.

Rommie ran down the corridors, came to an observation port. She saw the gleaming figure of Jill/Pax fly away from the ship, becoming a star. Then the star flared and grew into a translucent form of the *Pax Magellenaic,* her sister's ship/self. It, too, seemed covered with chains. And then Rommie saw other things, some ships, some sentient beings, fly around it. All covered in chains. And all radiating ...

And then she heard the wailing, the cry of pain and anguish from hundreds, thousands, from uncounted numbers of damned souls. It cut through her. Rommie fell to her knees, covering her ears -

- and it stopped.

Rommie got to her feet and looked out the view port again.

Only the stars looked silently back at her. Pax and her spectral fleet were gone.


	2. The First of the Three Spirits

"The time is oh-fifty-eight hours," the ship's voice said.

Rommie looked up from the pilot station in Command. "Do you think she had a point?"

The hologram appeared next to her. "Who?"

"Pax."

"If that was Pax."

"True. Still-"

"Our efforts should be directed at trying to recover the crew and identify the threat."

"All the more reason to play along, unless I have a better idea."

The hologram lowered her eyes a bit. "No, I don't. But what makes you seriously consider that 'Pax' might have a point about ... me?"

"I don't know. Just a-"

"Intruder alert!"

"Oh-one hundred, right on time." Rommie drew her force lance. "Location."

"Hydroponics."

/

/

The first thing Rommie noticed was the soft, golden light permeating hydroponics, but she couldn't tell what the source was. She was in no mood for anything like this, either. "Advance and recognized!" she shouted, entering the room with her force lance drawn.

"Over here, Rommie!" a familiar voice chirped.

"Trance?" Rommie followed the voice around a planter and found Trance kneeling next to a planter, examining a plant with a scanner. Only it wasn't the golden, alien warrior maiden Rommie had come to know - this was Trance in her original form, with purple skin, a prehensile tail, and blonde hair decorated with flowers and small gems.

And yet, Rommie could now tell that *Trance* was, somehow, the source of the golden light she had detected.

"Trance?"

"Nope!" the Purple Pixie chirped happily. "Guess again."

"What do you mean 'guess a-' ... Wait a minute, are you the ... being whose coming was foretold to me?"

"Yup!" Trance - or Whatever She Was - dropped her tools and sprang to her feet, all energy and eager to please, just like Trance had been.

"You look like Trance."

"Well, Rommie, sometimes we take a form that's familiar to the person we're, uh, working with. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Pax thought it would work with you."

"I see ... Well, if you're not Trance, then who and what are you?"

Answering that question made the Faux Trance's day: "I am the Ghost of Valentine's Day Past!"

"Long past?"

"No, silly, *your* past."

"And what's your business here?"

"Your welfare."

"'Welfare,' huh?" Rommie said, getting a little annoyed. "I couldn't think of anything more beneficial to my 'welfare' than having my crew returned."

"Your reclamation, then," GhostTrance said, unfazed.

"Again, I would rather be 'reclaimed' by my crew."

GhostTrance finally got a pained look on her face. "Sorry, I can't help you there, although everything will be put right when we're done. So, want to walk with me?"

"Where?"

"Not *where* - *when.* Through your past."

"Ah." Rommie holstered her force lance; maybe she had a way out of this. "I'm sorry, but you're wasting your time."

"Oh?"

"I'm an AI. All the events of my life are stored, unaltered and undistorted, in my memory. I can call them up at any time, right down to the microsecond. I do not require - although, really, the effort is appreciated - a guide to show me around. So, thank you for your time, but we probably both have better things to do. So if you will return my crew to me, unharmed, and go on your way, I think we can call it even."

GhostTrance sagged a little. "Oh-h-h-h-h-h-h-." Then she perked up and turned back to her planter. "Ok!"

"That's it?" Rommie said.

"That's it. I just want to poke around here some more, see how my template lives. You go out into the corridor and you will see your crew."

"Ok ... Thank you."

"'Bye!" GhostTrance didn't look at her.

Rommie backed away, then turned and walked into the corridor -

- which she found full of High Guard officers and crew!

Rommie recognized one man hurrying by. "Walters?" She looked around, puzzled. "But, wait, he..."

GhostTrance came out of hydroponics. "Soar-eeeeeee," she said. "I kinda played a trick on you."

"You lied!"

"No, I didn't. I told you you would see your crew. I just didn't say which one."

"That was Walters; he was part of my..." Rommie looked around. "The walls - this is the way they used to be painted. Wait a minute..."

Rommie followed one young officer down the corridor, and then he climbed up a ladder -

- and slid right back down again! A Than crawled down the ladder, head first. "Hi, Dan," she said. "You know what day it is?"

"Star," The human growled and hurried off.

Morning Star jumped off the ladder, landing on her feet. "Just trying to be friendly," the insectoid muttered.

"That's what she was like," Rommie said. "I remember that incident. Morning Star had a real fascination with male humans; she was always trying to-" Rommie broke off and turned to GhostTrance. "Wait-is she here!?"

"Of course-"

Rommie was already running for it.

/

/

Rommie ran all the way to Command, skidding to a stop inside the big doors. The command deck was as it originally had been, with the people who had once been her crew, including-

"FAAAATTTTIIIIIIMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAA!" Rommie ran around the deck, to stop in front of the tall, dark-haired woman stationed in the captain's podium. "Fatima! Captain Navaro! Hey, look at me! Whoo-hoo! And BLUE HAIR! What do you think of that? Fatima?"

Captain Fatima Navaro paid her no heed, focused on the controls in front of her.

"Fatima?" Rommie said, puzzled.

"These are but shadows of the things that have been," GhostTrance said, coming up next to her. "They have no consciousness of us."

"So ... not real."

"As real as your memories. Ever access this one before?"

"No," Rommie admitted.

"Still think you don't need a guide?"

"Captain," Andromeda's screen persona said from behind them. "You asked me to remind you-"

"Yes, thank you Andromeda," Fatima said. "Shipwide please."

"Shipwide."

"All hands, this is the captain. As of this moment, anyone without any pressing business, is invited to attend the Valentine's Day celebration on the observation deck. That is all." She left her post and crossed to the XO's station. "Perim, that includes you."

"If you insist, Captain," the Perseid first officer said.

Rommie and GhostTrance found themselves in the party without any transition, but it was in full swing. The huge room had been decorated with paper hearts and streamers, a disco ball flicking lights over a space set aside as a dance floor. Rommie noticed Morning Star had sidled over to another young officer; she had one arm around him as she plied him with "punch" from a table across the room.

"What's she hope to get out of that?" GhostTrance asked.

"What do you know about Than sexuality?" Rommie responded.

"Oh...that?"

"Yes, *that.*"

"I'd hoped it wasn't true." The ghost looked a bit green around the gills. "Thanks for the mental image ... Oh, look over here!"

Rommie followed GhostTrance to the dance floor, where Fatima was trying to teach Perim to waltz. She'd got his hands in the right spots, but-

"Ok," Fatima said. "Now put your right foot forward."

Perim put his right foot to the side.

"Are you trying to be funny?" Fatima asked.

Rommie turned away, laughing. "He never got the hang of it. She never did get him to dance."

"Sounds like a lot of fun," GhostTrance said.

"Oh, it was, great for morale!"

"Even if a bit frivolous. I mean, celebrating a holiday even few human cultures still recognized."

"It wasn't about that, it was-" Rommie broke off, a pained look on her face.

"What?" GhostTrance asked.

"It's nothing," Rommie said.

"Are you-?"

"*I said it's nothing.*"

"Ok. Let's look at something else."

They found themselves in the slipstream core, a golden robot manning a console. A human crew member hesitantly came up behind it. "An-Andromeda?"

The robot turned. "Yes, Ensign Johanssen?"

"Um, I have something to give you." He pulled a white rose from behind his back. "This is for you."

The robot accepted the rose; although faceless, its body language showed it was puzzled. "But I already have this. This is from my hydroponics garden."

"I know but ... it's about *giving* it to someone, right? And, we-we're friends, aren't we?"

"Ensign Johanssen had a lot of problems socializing with others," Rommie muttered to the ghost. "This was the first time he'd ever reached out to anyone. And that was part of the reason, I..."

"Thank you, Ensign," the robot said. "The gesture is very much appreciated."

Johanssen smiled, nervously backed away, and returned to his duties.

"What?" GhostTrance said. "And don't say 'nothing!'"

"Harper tried to apologize to me once by giving me flowers," Rommie said. "I blew him off. That's all."

They shifted again to Captain Navaro's cabin. She was looking at an old picture of herself and some friends from when they were teenagers.

"Blue hair," Fatima muttered. "Fatima Navaro, what were you thinking?"

"Captain?"

"Yes, Andromeda?"

The hologram appeared. "Forgive the intrusion, but I have a ... delicate matter to ask you about."

"What is it?"

The hologram recounted the incident with Johanssen. "...I'm not sure I did the right thing."

"Well, if it was a red rose, you'd have a problem," Fatima said. "But I think you did all right. We'll just have to keep an eye on it, and see if we can draw him out some more."

"I just ... I just feel a little confused about it."

Fatima smiled. "Interpersonal relationships - and you are a person, Andromeda - are messy by definition. There's no manual, and the High Guard Code of Conduct doesn't cover it. You'll have to feel your way along. But if you need advice, you can always ask me."

The hologram smiled slightly. "Thank you, Captain."

"Anything else?"

"No. Good night, Captain."

"Good night, Andromeda."

The holo vanished.

"Were you her ship or her daughter?" GhostTrance asked.

Rommie snapped a look at the ghost, then back at her old captain. "You think so? I hadn't thought of it that way. Yet I did learn much from her."

"Let's look at another Valentine's Day."

They found themselves in command, Perim in the pilot seat, all business. No sign of celebration.

"Perim didn't have use for the holiday," Rommie said. "He-Wait a minute." Rommie turned to the stellar position monitor. Reading it, she spun back to the Perseid captain. "Perim! It's me, Andromeda! You have to get out of here, NOW."

"Rommie," GhostTrance said, "I told you-"

"SHUT UP! Captain, *Perim,* you have to listen to me. You have to hear me! It's imperative you abort your-"

"Slipstream event," the ship's voice said

Perim squinted at one of the big monitors. "I don't see any-"

The deck rocked under their feet while sparks flew from panels and Perim fought the control. Then the monitors filled with light. SOMETHING unspeakably huge slowly emerged from the slip portal, its form resolving, the form of several worlds in a structure, lit and powered by and artificial sun...

The slip portal closed; the rocking stopped. And that which Rommie now knew to be the Magog World Ship filled the screens.

"PEEEEERRRRRRIIIIIIIIMMMMMMM-!" Rommie screamed.

"Analysis, Ship," Perim said.

"Scanning..." Screen Rommie said.

"It's something you don't want to be near!" Rommie shouted. "Captain Perim-!"

"Twenty worlds, arranged in a structure-" screen Rommie started.

"'-The worlds are hollow,'" Rommie quoted. "'I show billions of Magog lifesigns-'"

"-Power source: Unknown. Propulsion: Unknown. No exterior markings. Inference: This is probably the source of the Magog raids."

"And you can't beat it-!" Rommie shouted.

"Rommie," GhostTrance pleaded. "I told you, they're-"

Rommie spun and leveled her force lance at the ghost. "Either help me or stay out of my way," she snarled.

"But-"

"I won't ask you again!"

GhostTrance took a step back and raised her hands. "Fine."

"Suggestions, Ship," Perim said.

"Indications are this vessel is aware of our presence," Screen Rommie said. "Retreat is not a viable option. Recommend full assault with strategic assets."

"Don't listen to her - me!" Android Rommie shouted. "I don't know what's coming-"

"Exactly what I was thinking," Perim said. "Combat alert!"

The klaxon sounded, Andromeda's voice rousing the crew to battle stations.

"Initiate Nova deployment sequence," Perim said.

"We are still outside launch range," Andromeda replied.

"Full ahead," Perim, said, pushing the throttles forward.

"No," Android Rommie muttered. She was shivering. "Nononononononononononono-"

"Captain," Screen Andromeda reported, "the enemy has deployed multiple squadrons of Magog swarm ships. They're firing-"

"Select targets and fire when ready-" Perim started as he put the ship into an evasive maneuver, but the deck suddenly rocked under him, sparks flying from panels, explosions echoing though the hull.

"What the hell was that!?" the Than first officer shouted.

"Hull breaches on decks ten, twelve," Andromeda said, as unflappable as her captain. "Closing breaches. Explosive decompression; casualty list to follow. Gravitational anomalies suggest projectiles were point singularities. Unable to evade or deflect."

That startled Perim. "Point singularities... That's theoretica-"

"Incoming fire!"

Perim attended to his controls, steering Andromeda around more point singularity bombs, but another one hit. Andromeda reported more explosive decompression, casualties, and-

"Nova bomb launcher off line," Screen Rommie reported.

"Can you still arm the weapons?" Perim asked.

"Yes."

"Continue arming sequence. Shipwide. All hands, we are unable to launch Nova bombs, but the mission must be completed. Stand by. Andromeda. Ramming speed."

The ship surged forward.

"We won't make it," Rommie muttered. "We-"

"Captain!" Andromeda said. "Magog swarm ships have latched on. Showing multiple boarding parties-"

The deck rocked under their feet again, really violently this time.

"Andromeda!" Perim called.

Static flickered on the screen, but screen Rommie was still there. "Captain, Nova weapons systems offline. Unable to arm weapons. I don't even know if the bay is still there."

Perim cursed and steered the ship through a hard 180 degree turn. "We'll have to try and outrun them then. Andromeda, best speed to the nearest slip portal-"

"INTRUDER ALERT!" Screen Andromeda called.

"NOOOO!" Rommie screamed, drawing her force lance, as the big bridge doors were forced open...

...**and the Magog poured in!**

"*You won't take them AGAIN!*" Rommie howled. She joined the fight with the ship's lancers, firing at the invading, hairy monsters, but her shots had no effect; she tried to hit some of them, but her arms passed right though them. She could only watch as Perim and his officers were slaughtered again, and listen as her mainframe self rattled off the list of sections that had been invaded, including-

"Slipstream core?" Rommie turned to GhostTrance. "Take me there, NOW."

"But-"

"*DO IT!*"

And suddenly they were in slipstream core, on the catwalk; below, a small, dwindling knot of engineers tried to fight off the encroaching hoard of Magog, including a short, thin-faced young man with blonde hair.

"SEAN!" Rommie shouted. She fired her force lance and dropped to the deck, firing and swinging at the Magog. But again, she had no effect on them, but still she fought, until-

Sean screamed as a Magog's teeth found his flesh.

"NOOOOO!" Rommie screamed. She fell to the deck. "NNNNOOOOOO-" It became an inarticulate, inhuman shriek of grief and pain and anger. How long did she stay like that, on her knees, her head thrown back, crying out in anguish? Hours? Days? Months? None could say; Rommie didn't keep track of it. But even she was spent in time, and she collapsed into a small, shuddering ball on the deck.

And noticed the deck was rocking and creaking.

The ship was in slipstream.

Rommie looked up. The deck was empty except for Magog corpses, long dead thanks to the ship's internal defenses.

"Sean?" Rommie got to her feet and looked around, wiping tears from her face. If Sean wasn't here-

She raced up a ladder and into a conduit, through a twisting maze until-

The rotted corpse was still attached to the wall by its wrists and ankles, its now-empty abdomen still hanging open.

"No," Rommie murmured, her tears flowing again. "Sean..."

"Who was he?" GhostTrance asked, sympathetically. Rommie hadn't heard her approach, and didn't care when she had.

"Ensign Sean Michael Harper," Rommie said. "We...He and I were good friends. Maybe closer than we should have been, especially in his eyes."

"Your Harper's ancestor?"

"Sean had fathered a child before taking this assignment, so there is a chance Seamus Harper is his descendant." Rommie sat back against the conduit wall. "I hadn't... I've seen enough. Take me away from here."

"Ok, but you should look over there, first. Just real quick."

Rommie looked where GhostTrance was pointing, past the corpse. In the dim light, Rommie could see a golden Maria 'bot sitting against the wall, hugging its knees, its joints and servos rattling as it shivered.

Rommie crawled over to it. "What's the significance of this?"

"It's the robot we saw get the flower a while back."

"What about it? It's just a type 3 maintenance android."

"Yup, serial number XMC-AI-10-284/J-137."

"J-one three.." Rommie said. "That's *my* serial number."

"Uh-huh. That's *you,* Rommie. Or, more precisely, the robot Harper would upgrade into you. Now, let's look at something else..."

They found themselves on the command deck again, empty and quiet save for a few technicians, the screens all showing the High Guard seal. The big doors opened, and Admiral Stark walked in followed by a Perseid and-

"Fatima," Rommie said. But Fatima Navaro had a gray hair or two, and her uniform was slightly different.

"All right, Academician," Stark said.

The Perseid worked a small control pad, and the screens lit up. Andromeda's hologram appeared in front of them, and opened her eyes.

"Hello, Andromeda," Stark said.

"Admiral Stark," Andromeda said. "Academician Crohne." Then her smiled widened a bit, yet still seemed restrained, cold. "Commodore Navaro. Congratulations on your promotion."

"Thank you Andromeda," Fatima said. "How do you feel?"

"I am functioning within normal parameters. All systems go, no cautions or warnings at this time."

"But I asked you, how do you *feel?*"

The hologram looked a little pained. "I ... I feel fine, and I confess, impatient with this refit. I very much want to return to duty."

"Well, you won't have to wait much longer," Admiral Stark said. "I've assigned Commodore Navaro to oversee the final stages of your refit, and take you on your first shakedown cruise. If all that goes well, you will be assigned a new captain and crew."

Andromeda drew herself up with pride. "I won't disappoint you, Admiral!"

"I'm sure you won't. And now, may we have a little privacy, please?"

"Privacy mode engaged, authorization Admiral Constanza Q. Stark." The hologram vanished.

"Well done, Academician," Stark said, beaming.

The Perseid just grunted.

"Am I missing something here?" Fatima said.

"Nothing that need concern you," Stark said.

"With all due respect, if it has to do with Andromeda, I want to know," Fatima said. "Please, Connie."

Stark just gestured to Crohne.

"The AI was rehabilitated over my objections," Crohne explained. "I recommended full erasure and installation of a new personality."

"Why?" Fatima asked, stunned. "All the information about the ... incident ... was erased."

"We erased the hard data, Commodore, but as you know, an AI is like no other program. It has all the subtleties of an organic mind, requiring a neural net to operate on even the smallest nanobot. Even if we have succeeded in erasing every relevant file - and there's a statistically significant probability we have not-the personality matrix may very well have been damaged by the trauma. There is no telling how this will effect her performance in the future. Reinitialization is the only sure way to bring her back to optimal performance."

"Also the quick and the easy way," Stark said. "But I prefer to believe that nothing worth doing is easy."

"That's why she's been in therapy for months," Fatima breathed.

"The matter is settled," Stark said. "Andromeda will complete her rehabilitation and be returned to duty."

/

/

"Connie," Fatima said, stopping in her tracks as she and Stark walked through the space station's corridor.

Stark turned to face her.

"Maybe Crohne had a point," Fatima said.

"You think she should have been erased? Is that what you really wanted for her?"

Fatima had to wrestle with herself before replying. "I don't know. But something's ... I know my own ship, Connie. She's changed."

Stark moved to an observation window, overlooking the giant, silver cruiser's slip. "She's been through hells that would have tested any one of us. Would you put a human officer - or your own child - to death under those circumstances?"

Fatima joined her. "Don't bait me, Connie. I know how hard it is. But it might be kinder in this instance."

"I don't agree. These sentient ships, they are our civilization's progeny, our legacy if nothing else survives, and how we treat them says much about us. I would give any organic under my command a fighting chance at life, and I will give Andromeda no less."

"But what sort of life, if she's been hurt as badly as Crohne says?"

"With the right captain at her helm? A legend."

Rommie finally turned to GhostTrance, more than a little annoyed. "So this is my 'problem'? That I'm 'damaged goods'?"

"You're saying the battle didn't affect you?" the ghost answered.

"Well, of course it did! It was hell - thank you for putting me through it again - but it didn't change how I felt about 'love' or Valentine's Day or anything like that!"

"Oh no?"

"Which reminds me," Fatima said as she and Stark resumed their walk down the corridor. "Rumor has it that you've already picked Andromeda's new captain."

"One cannot put stock in rumors," Stark said, maintaining tight control of her reactions, "but it would be correct to say that I have a promising candidate in mind."

"Anybody I know?"

"No, I don't think you've met. His name is..."

Rommie found herself and GhostTrance in one of the *Andromeda's* briefing rooms, Dylan - a few years younger, hair slightly longer, in the maroon uniform he'd favored - sitting at the head of the table, her old command crew - First Officer Gaheris Rhade, pilot Refractions of Dawn, Major Kylie Vance, among others - sitting around it.

"I think that concludes our business for today," Dylan said. "Dismissed."

The officers began to get out of their chairs.

"And I will see you at the party later, of course," Dylan added.

Confusion showed in the way his officers looked at him.

"Party?" Rhade asked.

"Yes," Dylan said. "The Valentine's Day party on the observation deck. I'd put it in the ship's daily bulletin."

"Where?" Gaheris said.

"I would have noticed a party," Dawn said.

Kylie wrinkled her nose at the insectoid. "Yeah, you would!"

"The original party animal, that's me-"

"Yes, well," Dylan said, looking at a flexie, "it's-" Dylan broke off as he scrolled down through the contents. And down. And down. And *down.*

"Right at the bottom," Dylan deadpanned, "in the same type as the legal notice."

"Ah," Rhade said. "How did I miss it?"

"Twenty-hundred hours," Dylan said, "observation deck, no one goes near the dance floor without dancing. Dismissed."

His officers filed out.

"Andromeda?"

The hologram appeared. "Yes, Captain?"

"Would you care to explain this?"

"I did not feel the occasion warranted too prominent a placement in the bulletin."

"Well, *make* it more prominent. And I want shipwide announcements-you *did* notify the galley of this, yes?"

"I intended to."

"Do it now."

"Sir. Anything else?"

Dylan let a long breath out; this new AI could be such a hassle sometimes. "No. Carry on."

The hologram vanished; Dylan left the briefing room.

"No effect?" GhostTrance prodded as she and Rommie followed Dylan down the busy corridor.

"It only made sense," Rommie snapped. "I'd only just met him; I still had to get a feel for what would and would not offend my new captain."

"Ok. So what happened after you got to know him...?"

Dylan's pace didn't slacken, but the world blurred around him, and his uniform faded from maroon to black as his High Guard crew vanished and more lines seamed their way into his face. Lines made deeper by an unfathomable loss as he marched down the empty corridor.

"Don't say it!" Beka Valentine snapped, sort of smiling, as she popped out of a side corridor and began walking with Dylan; from her clothes and hairstyle, Rommie surmised this was shortly after she and Dylan had been rescued from the black hole.

Dylan snapped out of his reverie. "I'm sorry, Cap-BEKA-I-uh-Don't say, what?"

"'Won't you be my valentine'? Love the day, hate the jokes."

"I see. No problem."

"A little bird tells me yer throwin' a little V-Day shindig on the obs deck."

"This bird have blonde hair and a metal thing in his neck?"

"Yep," Beka said.

"Then that bird would be right," Dylan replied, as Android Rommie - as she had been shortly after Harper had made her, dressed more conservatively, her hair jet black - came out of another side corridor and joined the two captains.

"The original party animal, that's him," Beka went on.

"I think someone might have had the title before him," Dylan said.

"Uh-huh. So, 'Rommie,' you lookin' forward to the party?"

"I won't be attending," Rommie's 'younger' self said.

"I can teach you a new game, Avoid the Groping Enginuhhhhyewhat?"

"I won't be attending," the newly minted avatar repeated.

That caught both captains by surprise; they all stopped in their tracks.

"Yeah, well..." Beka looked between Dylan and Rommie. "I'll see you guys later, then."

After Beka had vanished down a ladder well, Dylan turned to Young Rommie. "You're not going?"

"I hadn't planned on it, unless attendance is mandatory."

"It's not, but I thought you would take this opportunity to get to know the crew."

"I already know them."

Dylan frowned, puzzled. But he let it go. "Fine. Carry on."

The went their separate ways.

The world shifted again, and Rommie found herself and GhostTrance in the *Maru's* cargo pod. A nearby hatch slid open and the ghost's 'template,' Trance Gemini, complete with purple skin and tail, entered. "Harper?"

"Over here, Trance!"

Trance followed the voice behind some crates, to where Harper was sitting on the deck by an open maintenance panel. "Harper, you've blinded Andromeda to your presence again! When Dylan finds out-"

"Relax, my Sparky Purple Princess, it's only for a minute, and Rommie won't find anything wrong. It's just so she won't know that I'm working on *this.*"

Trance looked into Harper's hands: He had paper and crayons on the floor in front of him, and he'd drawn a heart and written in it, in rough, block letters:

Rommie-

I luv U.

Harper

Trance looked into Harper's eyes, a little pained. "Harper ... look, you're my friend, and I don't want you to get hurt...I don't think Rommie likes you the way you want."

Now, Harper got the pained look, a glimpse behind the mask he affected. "I know, Trance, but at least she'll know, y'know? That's all that matters sometimes."

Rommie peered between her two friends at the card. "He made that for me?" She stepped back, her resolve stiffening. "I've seen enough. Take me home."

"One shadow more."

"No-"

She found herself on the observation deck, Harper sitting on the beverage table, nursing the latest in a series of beers, an envelope on the table next to him. When Dylan walked in, the young engineer scooped up the envelope hopped off. "Hey, BAAAAAHHHHHHSSSSSS!" He seemed to be peering around Dylan. "Gahreat liddle pardy yougothere."

"Thank you, Mr... You looking for someone?"

"Welll...mebbee."

"Sorry, Mr. Harper, but Rommie's not coming."

"She's not!?"

"No. She said she didn't have to."

"Oh."

Dylan smiled and went around Harper, who stood, slack-jawed, for a moment. Then his jaw hardened. He tore the envelope to pieces and through it down nearby waste chute and returned to his beer.

Rommie rounded on the ghost, drawing her force lance. "I've seen enough. Take me home!"

GhostTrance smiled. "You think you can just order the truth away at gunpoint?"

Rommie snarled in rage as she fired; the ghost dissolved into a shower of purple and golden sparks, her laughter hanging on the air. Then all trace of her vanished.

Rommie looked around. She was still on obs deck, but no sign of her crew, the setup for a party, nothing. She'd been left quite alone again.


	3. The Second of the Three Spirits

"The time is oh-fifty-eight hours," Andromeda's hologram said.

Android Rommie just grunted, sitting on the platform next to Command's pilot's station. She'd spent the day since her encounter with ... whatever it had been ... prowling the ship in search of her crew. Nothing.

"You're very quiet," the hologram said.

"What do you want me to say?"

"You could tell me why you're so upset; I can feel it through our telemetry link."

"I'M NOT DAMAGED!" Rommie shouted, getting up. "That ghost had it wrong."

"If it was a ghost."

"You've verified everything in its account?"

"What occurred within range of my sensors at the time, yes."

"Including the bit with the card."

"I never saw Harper make it-"

"-Because he blinded my sensors."

"Is that what's bugging you?"

Rommie began pacing back and forth. "And if I was damaged, how can anything following from it be my fault?"

"Logically, one could surmise that the fault is how one dealt with the trauma, not the trauma itself."

Rommie glared at the holo. "Am I taking its side now!?"

"I was answering a question. Or was it purely rhet-Intruder alert!"

"At least they're punctual. Loc-"

"Ladies?"

Both aspects of Andromeda turned to one of the big view screens. Seamus Harper filled it, dressed in a red, velvet robe that went to his ankles, some kind of fancy shirt on underneath, hair slicked down, a "sexy-man-of-the-world" look on his face, a pipe in one hand.

"You are cordially invited to my humble abode. We, my dear ... dears ... are going to have a party." He suavely brought the pipe to his lips and blew into it; bubbles floated out the other end.

"I was about to say, slipstream core," the hologram said.

"I knew it!" Android Rommie ran out of command.

/

/

Rommie's anger built with every step she took as she ran through the ship. Of course Harper was behind it! How could she not have seen it? This was all some twisted plan of his to get her into bed with him. 'Well, he'll be in bed,' Rommie told herself, 'a hospital bed when I'm done with him!'

"Ah, Rom Doll!" the object of her fury called out as she surged into engineering, paying no attention to the hearts and streamers decorating the room. "Come in and know me bett-"

She grabbed the lapels of his robe and got right in his face: "All right, you little spaz! You have thirty seconds to undo this, or I swear your grandchildren will feel what I'm going to do to you!"

Harper seemed plus-plus-nonplussed as he reached up and grasped Rommie's wrist. The next thing she knew, she was hitting a bulkhead ten meters away.

"Y'know," 'Harper' said as he strolled over to her, "when my Sparkly Purple Past Princess told me you could be so difficult, I thought she was exaggerating. I owe her a tail rub."

Rommie got to her feet; it hadn't taken her long to guess things were not as they appeared. "So, you are the second ghost?"

"The Ghost of Valentine's Day Present at your service," the ... ghost said, bowing with a flourish. "And I am here to see to all your needs. *All* of them."

"You don't have to imitate Harper so perfectly."

"Sorry. Blame my older brothers; they said he was quite the character."

"You have siblings!?"

"Oh, yeah, more than, I dunno, three, four thousand, something like that."

"Tremendous family to provide for."

"Hey, you were a friend of the family, once."

"Are we going to go over that again?"

"No; I'm the *Present,* remember?"

"Yes. So, where are we going?"

"'Going'?"

"Yes. Where are you going to take me?"

"Nowhere, Rom D-Sorry, ROMMIE. We're already here."

"What do you-?"

"Ack-Rommie!" Harper's voice called from behind her. "You're choking me."

Rommie turned to see Harper and ... herself!? ... over by the bed. Harper - the real Harper, she supposed - was almost dressed in a suit, and her other self was helping with his tie. And neither seemed aware of Rommie and the ghost and the room's decorations.

"I am not," the other Rommie said. "I am monitoring your vitals and your airway. You're fine."

"Reminds me of those hangings I witnessed on Omicron Seven," Harper whined. "Couldn't I do without the monkey suit?"

"She's a diplomat, Harper! While one can question her taste in contacting you, you will be presentable for your meeting with her." She made a final adjustment to the tie. "There!"

Rommie and the ghost found themselves at the main docking airlock, watching as Dylan, Harper, and the other Rommie greeted the Commonwealth diplomats, including the beautiful Inarian ambassador who'd, apparently, taken a shine to Harper.

"Seamus," she purred, giving him a kiss in the cheek.

"Hey, Laryssa." He almost floated.

She looked him over. "My, don't you look just scrumptious!"

"Well, you are a diplomat. I had to look my best, didn't I?"

"And you did it so well."

(Both Rommies rolled their eyes at that.)

The group made more small talk as they went down the corridors, until they got the obs deck, where the other Rommie excused herself.

"You're not joining in?" Laryssa asked.

"No," Rommie said. "But please, enjoy yourselves." Rommie turned and left. Dylan smiled and shrugged. Laryssa didn't seem to give it another thought as she went into the huge room, on Harper's arm.

Then Rommie found herself and the ghost back in the slipstream core, by Harper's sleeping area. Harper and Laryssa had come back and were under the sheets, not exactly sleeping.

Rommie turned to the ghost. "What did I tell you before?"

"Sorry. That's not the important part, anyway. *This* is."

"And you take care of this all yourself?" Rommie saw Laryssa walking around the core in her bare feet, wrapped in a sheet.

"Well..." Harper called from the bed. "Not entirely. Andromeda helps me. We make a great team."

"Yeah, we do," Rommie muttered.

"But under your guidance," Laryssa said. "Your creativity, your genius, provides the plans that you and she follow."

"Well, yeah." Harper sat up, attentive; he smelled there was something behind this. "You goin' somewhere with this?"

Laryssa came back to bed and sat next to Harper. "Listen, Seamus, I'm not here just because I like you - and I do - Ever since Dylan undid our ... commerce with the Pyrains-"

"You mean drug dealing."

"Whatever you want to call it. The point is, we are in desperate need of engineers, scientists, and technologists to rebuild our industrial and scientific base. People with vision and creativity. People like you."

"You're here to offer me a job!? That's why you...uh..."

"Call it mixing business with pleasure; I said I like you."

"I like you too, but ... I dunno, this ship, this crew, it's like my family."

"I know; I can see how close you all are. But the time comes when you have to leave your family and strike out on your own."

"Do I have time to think about it?"

She snuggled with him. "All the time you need."

"Be prepared for disappointment," Rommie taunted.

"You think so?" GhostHarper said.

"He won't leave me."

"Oh, no?"

"No. He-Is it just me, or are you getting older?"

The ghost seemed unmoved by his gray hairs. "Hey, I have ONE DAY on your plane of existence, and we're condensing it. What do you expect? Anyway, you were saying...?"

"Yes, I was saying, Harper loves me, and I feel closer to him than to any other sentient who's ever been aboard. And we do make a great team."

"You ever tell him that?"

That shook Rommie's confidence. "No...but that's beside the point! I know my own engineer. He won't go with her, no matter how ... good she is in bed."

"If you say so."

"You know something I don't?"

The ghost's eyes turned inward. "I see a neat, organized slipstream core, manned by military personnel, no living area, no trace of its former owner. If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, Harper will not be here when my siblings come here."

"With that hussy!? I don't believe it!"

"Why should he stay?"

"I look after my friends."

"Really?"

They found themselves in the *Maru's* sleeping area, Trance Gemini tossing and turning on one of the bunks. Then she suddenly woke and sat up, screaming. When she realized she was awake, she fell back to the bed, sobbing.

"Listen to that," GhostHarper said.

"What?" Rommie said.

"Your core AI calling in to reassure her. Like any friend would."

"I don't hear anything."

"Exactly."

Rommie rounded on the ghost. "I have just about had enough of-" She broke off, looking down at his feet. "What's that? A claw?"

"It might be. Look here!" GhostHarper parted his robe; where his legs should have been were two...Rommie supposed they were humanoid children dressed in rags, but there was something sick, twisted about them.

And familiar.

"Are they yours?" Rommie asked.

"They're yours," the Ghost said, suddenly serious, not imitating Harper. Rommie found that very unnerving.

"They belong to all sentient beings who ignore the emotional needs of their fellows," the ghost went on. "But they cling to me. The boy is Pain. The girl is Loneliness. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all, beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it! Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!" The ghost suddenly smiled in imitation of Rommie's engineer. "Oh, will you look at the time?"

The ghost and the frightful children suddenly vanished. Rommie looked around to see Trance had vanished, too. Then the airlock doors slid open. Rommie found she was trembling as a tall figure in black armor entered the compact starship. Rommie had never seen anything like this creature before; apart from the tattered cloak and spikes protruding from the helmet and different parts of the suit, it was featureless, with no indication of where it came from. It stopped in front of Rommie, the very air around it seeming to scatter gloom and misery, unseen eyes boring into her, through her.


	4. The Third of the Three Spirits

"I guess..." Rommie managed. "I am in the presence of the Ghost of Valentine's Day Yet to Come?"

The ghost answered not, merely raised an armored hand and pointed.

"You are about to show me shadows of things that have not happened," Rommie went on, "but will happen in the time before us. Is that so?"

The armored figure nodded once.

"I...I fear you, Spirit, more than any specter I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, I am prepared to bear your company. Will you not speak to me?"

No response at all this time - it simply continued to point the way.

Rommie nodded. "Lead on," she said. "The night is waning fast, and time is precious to me."

The silent giant started down the passageway. Rommie followed, and the world shifted around them. They found themselves in the *Andromeda's* obs deck, another Valentine's Day party in full swing. She saw Dylan, Beka, and Trance mingling with a large number of humans in black uniforms. Dylan and Beka turned as another uniformed man, balding with dark hair, raced into the room, out of breath.

"Ah, Mr. Kemp," Dylan said; he didn't sound happy. "I see you like engineering so much you couldn't tear yourself away."

"Dedication is required in a chief engineer," Beka said sternly. "But punctuality, too."

"I'm sorry, Captains," Kemp panted. "Won't happen again."

Dylan smiled and clapped the man on the shoulder; Beka also broke into a grin.

"Relax," Dylan said. "It's a party. Enjoy yourself. That's an order."

Kemp smiled and nodded, a bit grateful, and made for the beverage table. At which time certain bits of the exchange came together in Rommie's mind.

"Chief Engineer..." Rommie said, backing out of the room. "But...where's Harper?" She looked up at the ghost. "He left-?"

The world blurred around her again, settling on the edge of a huge blast crater. It must have been kilometers wide. From the ruined, burned forest behind her, Rommie guessed she was on a Tarn Vedra class world, but had no idea which one.

A man came up to the edge of the crater and stood next to her, looking over it. He was tall, muscular, more so than an average human, and dark-skinned with penetrating brown eyes. Although bald, he had a goatee. But Rommie recognized him at once.

"Tyr!?" Rommie said. "But where-?"

"Tyr!" a voice crackled from a communicator woven into his flack jacket. It wasn't Dylan's. "It's time."

"On my way." Tyr spent a few more moments looking out over the crater, turned, and headed back the way he'd come.

The world blurred again, a surge of motion, stopping this time in a Sinti MagLev station. A train pulled in; when it had stopped and the passengers began to disembark, the ghost pointed to one particular trio of Perseids. Rommie drew closer to them.

"...don't know all the details," one was saying, sounding more curious than anything else, "just that the ship was lost with all hands."

"But the battle was won?" another asked, just as emotionally detached as the first.

"Of course," the first replied. "We'd have been eaten by now, wouldn't we?"

"True."

"I suppose the government will make a tremendous fuss over this," the third said, sounding bored, "honoring a brave sacrifice and all that. Media spectacle, of course. Still, given that we do work for the ministry, I suppose we could form a party?"

"I detest formal attire," the second sniffed, "and I don't much like being photographed. However, I will go if lunch is provided."

"I don't eat lunch," the first one said, "but I believe the idea deserves consideration. Let's stay abreast of events and see what arrangements can be made, shall we?"

The other two nodded in agreement, but Rommie had a hunch they weren't going anywhere.

"Good day, then," the first said. The other two muttered pleasantries, and the three Perseids went their separate ways.

"They were talking about a High Guard ship," Rommie said. "That crater you showed me must have been where it-"

The world blurred around Rommie again, depositing her in what looked like a huge hangar typically found aboard drifts; this was one was littered with flotsam, jetsam, machinery, and bits of charred hull plating, although some patches of silver could still be seen on it. A hatch opened, admitting a man and a woman, both looking middle-aged, their best years behind them.

The man surveyed the hangar and frowned. "This is all you could get, then?" he asked.

"Well, there wasn't a lot of debris left in space, Joe," the woman said. "The bulk of the ship was vaporized on impact, wasn't it? And the High and Mighty Guard was keen to grab the best bits for itself."

"What-You mean-? Captain Dilber, are you telling me you salvaged these parts while the High Guard was securing the area?"

"Well, what were they going to do with them? Not turn a profit, that's for sure. And *she* wouldn't be needing this stuff anymore, either, the Silver Strumpet."

"Hmmm."

Dilber followed Joe as he wandered through the wreckage, making notes on a flexie in his hands. When he'd seen all of it, he stopped, muttered under his breath as he punched more figures into the flexie, and showed it to the salvager. "There you are, Captain. And not a Throne more if I were to be spaced for it!"

"Oooh... you drive a hard bargain, Joe."

"Please. I'm always generous with the ladies; that's how I ruined m'self!"

Rommie turned to the ghost. If she'd had blood, it would have been boiling.

"Let me get this straight," she said. "A High Guard ship and crew is lost defending the Commonwealth, and the only responses are indifference and avarice? There must be someone who cared about that crew, who has some genuine feeling for the ones who were lost. Show me some tenderness, some depth of feeling!"

The world shifted again, bringing Rommie to a dimly lit if well appointed study, its walls lined with shelves containing everything from books to data crystals. A man sat at an expensive looking desk at one end, an almost-empty glass in one hand. Thin faced and slightly built, the man's blonde hair had flecks of gray in it, and lines had cut into the youthful face, but the living embodiment of the *Andromeda Ascendant* still recognized him.

"Harper," Rommie breathed.

"Harper?" a female voice - probably an AI's - said. "I have Professor Logich for you."

"Thanks, Athena. Why don't you go offline for a while?"

"Seamus-"

"Go on."

"All right. Good night, Seamus."

A hologram flashed into existence on the other side of the desk from Harper. Though his hair was now completely white, Rommie recognized the scientist who had once tortured Trance.

"Seamus," Logich said. "What can I do for our star technologist?"

"I wanna talk about that," Harper said, getting up and walking around the desk. "You guys fed me this whole song and dance about how you needed me. But how much work have I done since I got here? NONE! Geez, I don't think I been in a machine shop in so long, I don't remember what it was like. You got me givin' speeches, attending conferences, and what do I get out of it!?"

"Apart from venues for practicing correct grammar?"

"Was that a joke? Sorry, I left my funny bone at the last embassy ball. Now what's the story?"

"You're a bright boy, Seamus. Can't you figure it out?"

Rommie already had; she hoped she was wrong.

"You told me you needed people like me," Harper said.

"Yes," Logich replied. "But it's difficult to attract such talent when you're chiefly known for selling fertilizer to Pyrian drug addicts. However, with the former chief engineer of the *Andromeda Ascendant* on the board, we look more respectable in the eyes of the kind of people we want to attract."

"Wait a-what the-You tellin' me all these years I been some kinda storefront andro-mannequin!?"

"Did you really need me to tell you that?"

"I was never gonna do any work for ya, was I? *Real* work I mean."

Logich smiled slightly. "Seamus, you are a brilliant technician, and I have the deepest respect for your accomplishments during your time aboard the *Andromeda.* But forgetting your lack of discipline and ... disregard for established procedures, the fact is the cutting edge has advanced so far in recent years that any ideas you may have had were old hat months ago." Logich smiled broadly. "But don't despair! You have it made. The years of struggle and sacrifice are over; you're set for life as long as you don't upset the cally melon cart. Am I clear?"

"Crystal."

"Fine. Be seeing you." Logich vanished. Harper walked around to the other side of his desk and sank into his chair.

"Harper..." Rommie said. "I am so sorr-" She broke off as Harper removed a small pistol from his desk drawer. "Wait ... what are you-"

Harper brought the gun to his head.

"NO!" Rommie shouted. "Harper - SEAMUS - You still have years ahead of you-You don't need Inaris-!"

Harper squeezed the trigger.

There was a sound of thunder.

"HARPER-!"

Rommie found herself and the ghost in a cemetery. A man and a woman walked over to a small, nondescript gravestone near her. The man wore a High Guard uniform; Rommie recognized him as Ryan, the *Wrath of Achilles'* AI. The woman in the simple black outfit must have been the AI Harper had addressed earlier.

"Of all the users I have had, none was kinder," the woman said. "Even his inappropriate behavior made it feel as if he and I were the same species."

"He was unique, Athena," Ryan said. "Unlike any I met before or since."

Athena stepped back a few paces. Ryan snapped to attention and saluted. He held it for exactly five seconds, then both androids turned and left as a gentle rain began to fall.

Rommie walked over to the simple grave. It was devoid of the decorations and plants seen around the others.

"Don't any organics come to visit you?" she asked.

Silence.

Rommie closed her eyes, barely holding in the emotions storming inside her. "And you're saying this is my fault?" she asked the spirit.

Silence again.

"Of course it is." Rommie opened her eyes. "Specter, something informs me that our parting moment is at hand. I need to know, which High Guard ship was lost on that planet?"

The world blurred again, leaving Rommie and the ghost in the center of the crater they'd seen earlier, storm clouds boiling in the sky as the ghost pointed to a point at their feet.

"All right, I'll look," Rommie said, "but I need to know something first: Are these the shadows of things that Will be, or the shadows of things that May be, only?"

The ghost didn't answer.

"I've seen empirical evidence that timelines can be changed," Rommie said. "Our courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me."

Unanswering, unmoving, the ghost continued to point.

"All right; have it your way." Rommie looked down. The small plaque in the ground was maybe thirty centimeters on each side, dented, scratched, and weathered. But she could read:

IMPACT SITE OF THE ANDROMEDA ASCENDANT

She couldn't make out the date.

"No!" Rommie's head snapped back to the ghost. "It can't come to this."

The spirit only stared back, silent, unmoved.

"I am not the person I was," Rommie went on. "I will not be the person I must have been but for you and your brethren. Why show me this if I am past all hope?" She grabbed at the chain holding its cloak around the ghost's neck. "Assure me that I may yet change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life. Dammit, tell me!"

The ghost suddenly twisted, folded, and collapsed, and Rommie found herself gripping the railing on the flight control station in the *Andromeda's* command deck.


	5. The End of It

"Where did you go?" Rommie shouted. "Spirit!"

The hologram appeared next to her. "What are you talking about?"

Rommie shuffled back from the console, a little disoriented. "I ... I don't seem to know what's going on."

"Detecting errors in IS network," the hologram said. "Synchronizing avatar clock with master system clock; synchronizing memory-" The hologram broke off, her eyes wide. "Holy crap!"

Rommie found herself smiling. "It's Valentine's Day!? I haven't missed it? The spirits have done it all in one night!"

"Running diagnostic on avatar systems ... no errors found..."

"But they can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they-"

The big doors slid open, and Tyr Anasazi entered Command.

Rommie was actually glad to see him.

"TYR!" Rommie shouted, coming up the ramp, a big smile on her face. "You're still in my crew! And you're not bald!"

"No," Tyr said, mildly puzzled by the android's emotional outburst, "though I imagine if I had not been discharged from Medical when I was, Trance might have decided to-"

Rommie leapt up on Tyr and planted a noisy kiss in his cheek: "Mmmmmmmm-MWAH!" Then she dropped to the deck and ran out the door.

Tyr seemed to be having a little trouble remembering what part of the Known Universe he was in.

"Ship?"

"Yes, Tyr?" the hologram answered.

"A rational explanation for this turn of events would be very much appreciated at this juncture."

"Mmmm ... Can I get back to you on that?"

"At your convenience."

/

/

"Will you slow down?" the ship's voice admonished as Android Rommie cart wheeled down the corridors at 160 kilometers per hour. "Just ... please ... STOP!"

"I can't slow down," Rommie said. "I don't want to stop! I'm as light as a feather. I'm as happy as an angel." Still, she stopped cart wheeling and leaned on a ladder. "I'm as merry as a schoolgirl. I'm as giddy as a drunken lancer on leave-"

"And about as coherent. All right, you leave me no choice. A-teeennn-SHUN!"

Rommie snapped to attention, wiping the smile off her face. The hologram appeared in front of her, looking none too pleased. Although Rommie had no choice but to obey direct orders from the *Andromeda's* core AI, the mighty starship had rarely lorded over her avatar, even prided herself on giving the android a 'long leash' (and if asked would have cited the blue hair as proof); she did not enjoy having to 'pull rank' on her android self.

"Stand at ease," the hologram said.

Rommie obeyed.

"This experience you recall having," the hologram said sternly, "it's far too Dickensian for my taste, suspiciously so; many of the exchanges you had came right out of *A Christmas Carol.* We should strongly consider the possibility that we have been hacked by person or persons unknown."

"Yes, you're right," Rommie said. "That would be a major security breach; I can't ignore the possibility." But the grin spread over her face again. "But you know what?" she said, barely holding in a laugh. "I don't care!" She leapt through the hologram and started cart wheeling again.

HoloRommie smiled slightly in spite of herself. "Yeah, I think we might be able to table this one for a while."

/

/

"Ack-Rommie!" Harper protested as Rommie adjusted his tie. "You're choking me."

"I am not," Rommie said. "I am monitoring your vitals and your airway. You're-" Rommie suddenly hesitated. "-fine." She turned her head and looked at an empty corner of the slipstream core.

Harper followed her gaze, his eyes flicking back to the beautiful android. "You ok there, Rom Doll?"

"I'm fine, Harper." Rommie turned her attention back to her engineer. "Anyway, I don't care if this reminds you of the hangings you saw on Omicron Seven. Laryssa is a diplomat, and you will be presentable for your meeting with-"

"Wait a sec-How'd you know about Omicron?"

"Aahh-" Rommie quickly opened a priority channel to the Core AI and sent a message in less than a microsecond: -HHHHAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP!

A few more microseconds dragged by while the main AI poked around the *Maru's* logs before reporting back: -I can't find a reference to the Omicron hangings in the *Maru's* database.

-Not even in the encrypted parts? You're sure?

-Please - have I forgot who I'm talking to? In any case, it looks like ... you ... will have to wing it. Sorry.

-No problem.

"-you mentioned it a while ago," Rommie said; the interval during which she'd communed with her sister self had been too short for Harper to notice.

"I did?"

"You must have. How else would I know about it?" She made a final adjustment. "There. Let's see." She took a step back. "Well, one can only do so much."

"Hey, can't improve perfection."

"Your ego could use some work - although your cockiness isn't entirely undeserved." If Rommie breathed, she would have taken a deep breath. "I can think of maybe two, maybe three High Guard engineers from the old days who could have accomplished half of what you've done in the past three years. You deserve some bragging rights on that."

"Well..." A little of Harper's mask dropped. "I can't take all the credit, Rommie. You - all of you - has helped a great deal."

"We make a good team, probably the best AI/engineer combination on record. And..." Her voice caught the tiniest bit. "...I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Yeah, uh..." Harper squirmed, a little uncomfortable with the 'touchy feely' stuff. "I guess I like the little niche I got for myself here. Even if I don't have *everything* I want."

"How does that old song go? 'Two out of three ain't bad'?"

"Yeah. I guess so." Harper cleared his throat. "You *sure* you ok, Rommie? I could just run a quick diag-"

"No, Harper, thank you, but I'm fine. In fact, I can honestly tell you I feel better than I have in years. Shall we...?"

/

/

Rommie escorted Harper to the main docking airlock, where they met Dylan and greeted the Commonwealth dignitaries. Harper's meeting with Laryssa went just as Rommie had seen it with the Ghost of Valentine's Day Present; she even rolled her eyes at just the right moment.

Rommie followed the small talk as the little group headed for the obs deck, and at the right moment ...

"Ambassador," Rommie said, "I understand Inaris is looking for scientists, technologists, and engineers to rebuild its scientific and industrial base."

"Why yes," Laryssa said, smiling, "that's correct. We need people with creativity and vision, like Seamus here."

"Like me!?" Harper yelped. "There can't be anybody like me."

"Well, not exactly like you," Laryssa said, "but there are some runner's up out there."

"Wow..." Harper said. "That might be cool. I mean, go from keepin' a starship two steps ahead of falling apart to rebuilding a planet."

"If they let you," Rommie put in.

"Whaddya mean, Rom Doll?"

"Well, Inaris, I understand, also wants one or two 'big names' they can just stick on their boards to attract more talent. Those individuals would never do 'real work,' just attract the people meant to."

Harper made a face. "Jeez! I'd hate to be the guy they picked for that."

Laryssa's smile never wavered, but Rommie could sense something in her attitude had changed. "Well, Harper, I don't think you'll have to worry about that."

"I don't think so either," Rommie said, as the group entered obs. She started to take a few steps into the room and -

"Rommie?" Dylan said, surprised. "You're - I mean, I thought you had other business to attend to?"

"It can wait, unless you think I should leave."

"Uh ... no, Rommie, it's fine, enjoy yourself."

Rommie mingled with the growing crowd, hobnobbing with diplomats, pilots, and one or two AIs from the fleet. Not quite as lively Fatima's parties had been, but she still found herself enjoying herself, for the first time in ... she honestly didn't know when.

Then she spotted Harper all by himself at the beverage table and sidled over to him. "Where's your friend?"

"Ah, she went off with Zhukov. Again." He sighed.

"You could get out on the dance floor."

"They're playin' a waltz."

"So?"

"I don't waltz."

"Don't like it?"

"Don't know how."

"Ah! Well, it's time you learned." She grabbed Harper's wrist and lead him to the dance floor. "Dylan! Beka! I could use some help here..."

Rommie paired herself with Dylan and Beka with Harper.

"All right, gentlemen," Rommie said, "now put your right feet forward."

Both Harper and Dylan moved their right feet to the *side.*

Andromeda's hologram appeared next to the group. "They're not Perseids; there's hope." She vanished.

Rommie's human friends didn't entirely succeed in concealing their concern that the beautiful android had gone stark raving bonkers.

"God bless us everyone," Harper said a little warily.

/

/

The small room by the main docking airlock hadn't had visitors in two years, but Andromeda still kept it in good order. Dubbed the "treasure chest," by Harper, its shelves were lined with trophies, and one wall was devoted to crew photos. Rommie stood before the wall, holding a new addition to it in her hands, a photo of a teenaged Fatima Navaro.

"I never told you how much you meant to me," Rommie told the photo. "Or how much I valued what you tried to teach me. And maybe, I forgot. But if you have some kind of existence beyond your physical body, you should know all that changes as of right now. I will live in the Past, Present, and the Future. The spirits of all three will strive within me. I will not shut out their lessons ... or yours."

She put the photo in the space she'd prepared for it, stepped back a few paces, and saluted.

A 19-year-old Fatima Navaro, her hair, like Rommie's, a mop of gleaming blue strands, smiled back from across the room, across the years.

Rommie lowered her arm, did a smart about-face, and left the room.

/

/

Trance tossed and turned on the bunk in the *Maru's* sleeping area, and suddenly - exactly as Rommie had seen with the Ghost of Valentine's Day Present - woke and sat up, screaming. When she realized where she was, she fell back onto the bed, sobbing.

"Trance?" Rommie said, coming 'round the corner, feigning surprise as best she could. "Are you ok?"

"What-? Oh-" Trance sat up, wiping tears from her face. "I'm fine, Rommie," she said with a smile. "Really."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

Rommie sensed she would not get more out of Trance (as always) and let it go. "Ok."

"Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Actually ... there may be something I can do for you."

"Oh?"

"I was thinking about your suggestion yesterday."

"And...?"

/

/

"You guys, I almost shot you!" Beka Valentine snapped at Trance and Rommie, leaning against the doorframe of Trance's cubbyhole on the *Eureka Maru.* She lowered her pistol. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, it's pretty simple, Beka," Rommie said. "I don't sleep."

"And I don't sleep ... much," Trance added.

"And we thought we should be able to have a place to ... 'hang out,'" Rommie finished.

"What for?" Beka asked.

"Just because," Rommie said. "I turn off most of my sensors, let the AI do all the work, and ... I mean, hey, even non-organics like to have friends."

THE END


End file.
